This industrial hall is all that remains of the “machine” that supplied Mons with drinkable water from 1871, the year when the river Trouille was diverted.
Designed by the architect Hubert and the engineer Celi Moullan, this impressive machinery of pipes and mains was built in metal and glass and forced the water from the valley level up to the town water tanks in the castle place yard.
The "water machine” still bears witness to the sanitary and hygiene concerns which arose in Mons in 1865-1870.
This progress at domestic level transformed the townspeople's way of life. They used to get water from wells or fountains, sometimes over a hundred yards from their homes.
The “water machine" was restored in the early nineties and the building now hosts various cultural events.
I found the place from an afternoon stroll along the Boulevard Dolez.
In a warm sunny days, I enjoy walking around the area and sit on one of the red bench.
Or sit by the pond of the Bank Nationale de Belgique building to feed the ducks and birds.
I had a chance to have a look and go inside the Water Machine building when there's a watercolor painting exhibition around March 2010. And after my visit, it looks like an abandoned building, similar to the next door Maison du Jazz. In 2014 the government build a new memorial museum around this building.